India Ritchie: 1982, London. Lives and works in Devon. Completed a BA in Textile Design at Goldsmiths in 2005 specialising in printed textiles, before going on to study for a Masters degree in Printmaking at Camberwell College of Art in 2007. Currently tutors FE and HE students in Plymouth.

My work explores notions of order and disorder. The anthropologist Mary Douglas, when analyzing cultural perceptions of dirt, posited that no substance in itself is ‘dirty’, but we find it to be undesirable because it is a substance or occurrence out of context. Dirt is essentially disorder, and thus threatens the order of things.[1]

If we take this theory of dirt being an occurrence out of context, it can easily be applied to any other form of disorder, whether social, physical or psychological.

But what is order? How is it constructed and maintained? What does order mean to us? Is order an oppressive social construct which inhibits us as individuals? Or is it a necessary system for coherent daily living?

The law, politics, education, work, hygiene, and social codes of conduct are all systems of order. However, the boundaries of these systems, even their very fabric, are in a constant state of flux, influenced by the changing perceptions of those under the influence of these very systems.

This then poses another set of questions. What is disorder? How does it come about and what are its aims? What does disorder mean to us? Is it a negative and destructive force which we must take steps to avoid? Or is it a necessary and healthy test of the social systems which we have collectively constructed?

Examining these questions, not only in terms of daily domestic routine and social interactions, but also in terms of less frequent and more momentous occurrences of disorder, is the ongoing focus of my research and practice.